With Armstrongs’s loss to Kamloops last evening coupled with the Raiders win over Vernon at Kelowna Memorial Arena (10 to 6), the Raiders are finding themselves sitting on top of the league for the first time this season. Raider head coach Steve Begley was pleased with the overall effort of his team as they maintained a lead throughout all three periods. The Raiders took full advantage of their power plays and penalty killers led by Darcy Leach and Braden Renner shut down Vernon’s big shooter, Shane Sargent who did manage two goals during the match. Kelowna’s tough defence led by Travis Lee, Owen Barski, Graham Hartl, Victor Wiens, Jarrett Neigum backed by goaltender Cam Needham proved to be too much for the Tigers who did play their best game of the season against their valley rivals.

Pairs of goals from Kelowna came from rookies Joe Brown and Jared MacLennan with singles from Eli Wood-Sowcroft, Colin Sherbanuk, Deryk McPhail, Braden Renner, Jarrett Neigum and Kyle MacLennan.

For Vernon, pairs came from Shane Sargent and Jorden Schocter and singles added by Kirk Krause and Tanner Skolrood.

Teams have the Canada Day weekend off and Kelowna will be in Armstrong to take on the Shamrocks on July 9.

Mark Jurista and the speedy Kamloops Rattlers were out-checked and out-scored as the Kelowna Raiders crushed their opponents 13 to 5 in a fast-paced, exciting game. The score was tied at the end of the first period but the Raiders came out in the second and scored 5 goals to throw the North Okanagan team completely off balance. Superb goaltending by Kelowna’s Cory Fearon backed up with a rock solid defence kept the Kamloop’s shooters frustrated and shut down their usually powerful power play all evening. Joe Brown, Jarrett Neigum and Kyle MacLennan all played brilliant two way lacrosse for all three periods, Brown assisting on three goals, Neigum assisting on two and notching one and MacLennan scoring two.

 Ryan Spring’s return to the Raider line-up proved detrimental to the Rattlers. Spring scored 4 goals and assisted on two to lead the Raider scoring. Other goals came from rookies Deryk McPhail 2, Braden Renner 1, Victor Wiens 1 and one each from veterans Pho Heng and Steve Plasko.

 Kamloops scoring included two each from Nathan Woldum and Mark Jurista and one from Brett Baker.

 The win puts the Raiders in a first place tie with the Armstrong Shamrocks. The next home game is next Friday, June 25, against Vernon.